2020 Life Logs, Day 145: Memorial Day
Date: Monday, May 25, 2020
Weather: Cloudy Early, Some Late Afternoon Sunshine; High 60, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I do hope each of you had a nice, safe Memorial Day Weekend. But saying ‘Happy Memorial Day’ just doesn’t seem like the thing to say. This weekend, as we honored those who gave their lives for this country, we are also mourning the lives of almost 100,000 Americans who have died in just the last three months of coronavirus. It is truly overwhelming, and certainly not happy. But it is very important in these time that all find ways to safely enjoy life and I hope you found that this weekend.
This weekend was not a good one for my back. Because of the pain, I stopped doing the press ups prescribed by my physical therapist, and things went downhill from there. I met on Zoom with the PT this morning and he had me slowly work back into the press ups/back extensions. It did hurt, but it felt better after I finished than it did before I started. So, he put me back on doing those press-ups every 2 hours, no matter what. We figured out that the probable reason I was having excessive pain over the weekend was because I am no longer taking the prednisone. It was masking the pain. The inflammation is still there, but we will now tackle it with exercises, not drugs. And in taking daily notes, my best days are my most active days. Sitting to watch a movie or standing in the kitchen for a couple of hours are NOT good for my back. But helping to launch and bring in kayaks, as well as some careful gardening and walking seems to keep the pain at bay. Busy seems to be better for this back.
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This afternoon Heather took Sam to a friend’s house to work on an obstacle course and I picked up Jonah and Ollie and brought them to my house so Jed could continue working on the flooring without interruptions. On the way to my house, we stopped at Smitty’s Ice Cream to pick up a container of their homemade chocolate ice cream and came home to have an ice cream party before heading to the dock to kayak. J & O really enjoyed going out in the two-man kayak together and it was great fun to watch them coordinate their rowing to turn, go forward, and even backwards. There was a mother duck and her babies that followed them back to the dock and they announced that they had seen a mother swan with six babies when they rowed out to Osprey Island. All wonderful signs of spring.
